Chapter 15
Ariadne wallows in her self-pity and regrets.
Sorry?
You're not really sorry, are you?
The only thing I'm sorry for is meeting the bunch of you.
Rude.

~Ariadne~

Hey, I bet you didn't expect this one! At least I'm not here to complain about my tragic back story again.

I'm here to complain about how stressful it is to plan a royal ball.

Which is worse? Well, take your pick. It's the same to me.

I had locked Amon at the dungeons ever since I caught him trying to kill those poor kiddos. What? I'm a nice human being. I know what's fair and what's not.

Cue a cheeky smile.

Even though Amon was locked up, I was worried that he would find a way to escape. Truth is, I never trusted him with anything, but he had been a loyal soldier for much longer than I was Queen. Even if I didn't trust him, I couldn't do anything to him, because the others would protest.

I mean, what would you do if the best in your team got fired or suspended? What would you do if the one person that is considered to be the most trustworthy, was personally attacked and accused of being the exact opposite?

Amon did  have a history of trying to take over the throne, but he never got caught because he covered his tracks. There was never any evidence against him, so they could never imprison him.

But that was in the past, because never before had he gone up against me.

That didn't mean to sound so arrogant. Sorry.

Now imagine having to stress about one of the most dangerous prisoners the castle has ever had, and having to arrange a ball too. That's no easy job, so that's why I hired a planner.

But that only made matters worse. I had to look at everything she planned, and in the end, I ended up firing her to do the whole work myself.

I found myself staying up all night for days, trying to figure out what I was going to do about that ball and what I was going to do with Amon.

Ruling a kingdom is bloody hard.

In the end I managed to make everything look perfect. Group projects were never really my thing anyway.

People. I never liked those.

Another bad news is that I was supposed to have my dress specially made by a top tailor in the realm. I didn't want that. I wanted to buy an ordinary dress from the boutique down the corner, next to the fast food restaurant. Like normal people.

But the guards would never let me do that. Just because I am the Queen, I am supposed to do things better than "lower class people". I don't get that. We're all people, we're all the same. Why do some of us get better treatment than others? Everyone should be equal. That's what I was trying to prove to my counselors, but they had enough. Especially with my venturing out unattended and without permission.

Well, I'm sorry, but I'm not a fragile doll that eats with I-don't-know how many forks and expects others to wipe my face after I'm done savouring their blood. That was the previous Queen, but I took care of her.

I just wanted to go home, but I would need a really good excuse for disappearing that long. Even after my uncle died, I waited for months. I couldn't just appear back in the attic and be like Adele in "Hello".

Seriously.

So I just what I knew how to do best, I hid. I didn't go back and, once again, avoided my problems instead of facing them. If I had just left when uncle William died, maybe the story would have gone differently.

Or if I had just killed Amon when I had the chance.

Now, I have never actually killed anyone (unlike the other kiddos) and never wanted to, but this was a villain that had gotten himself out of all troubles he had been caught causing. Bribing was a second language to him.

But even though I knew all that, I couldn't bring myself to have him executed. This was taking someone's life, something that he had done and attempted to do multiple times. But I couldn't do it.

I remember going to the dungeons right after having everything planned. If I could go back to that day, as would have wiped that smug smile off his face. Permanently.

«Well, well, well. Look what th cat dragged in.» he said when he saw me approaching his cell. I glared at him.

«We need to talk. I think it's a boy time you told me all about that plan of yours.» I replied.

«What plan? The one of taking over the throne? Please! If I wanted I could have all the army against you with a snap of my fingers. My plan is long-term. Killing or imprisoning you won't do me any good.»

«Why did you kill that kid's parents? Why did you try to murder in cold blood four teenagers?»

«Because I'm sick of no one being punished.»

«They didn't do anything!»

«Yeah, but I did. Look where that got me; you rent even going to kill me. You don't have the guts. If you did, you would avoid what is to come.»

«What is to come?»

«War.» he replied with a glint in his eyes and an evil grin.

«Not on my watch.» I told him coldly.

«But you can't help it, can you? These twins are not from around here, and if I'm right, neither are you. You want to go home.»

«You think you can see right through me, but you don't know that from my mother's side I am from Imyrth.» that wiped his smirk off his face.

«What? How? But--»

«But, my family left generations ago because of the protests against the royal family. My family created the compasses for King Peter.» I interrupted him.

I wasn't lying. When I first came to Imyrth someone told me that no one that comes from earth is an elementalist, so I did some digging. Everything I told Amon was true.

«Well, I wasn't expecting that turn of events.» he replied, still baffled from my revelation.

«Of course you weren't.»

«I bet that "Deidre" isn't even your real name.»

I didn't reply. I just smirked and walked out of the dungeons, having done some of the biggest mistakes in my life; telling Amon my family history and letting him live.

{Echo}

Since we had decided to go to the ball, Celine and I had gone shopping.

Now, I'm not much of a shopping kind of girl, but going out with a friend made it bearable.

I had never had friends before, so I either did all my shopping by myself, or with my mom, who hated everything I tried on.

We were in a small store with formal dresses. We had asked the receptionist at the hostel for a shop with low prices, and this was her first recommendation.

So far, we were impressed. The dresses were not really our style, but we would definitely wear them if we had the chance.

We ended up buying a dress each, shoes and purses. Celine bought a necklace too. I'm not really a jewelry type (which is ironic, considering my middle name is Jewel), unless the said jewelry has sentimental value or transports you to other worlds. Take your pick.

Celine's dress was long and in a grayish shade of blue. It had no sleeves and she matched it with a pair of simple, gray flats. Her necklace looked gold, but was actually one of the fake ones you find everywhere. It looked very realistic, though. She even got a gift for my brother. It was a chain bracelet with a dagger on it. She didn't give it to him until we went to the ball.

My dress was coral-red. It was long and sleeveless like Celine's, but that was about where the similarities ended. Mine tied up behind my head, whereas Celine's had no sleeves whatsoever. The dresses looked nothing alike and we both liked that. My flats were black and tied up around my ankles.

Our purses were the same colour as our dresses and about big enough to hold two daggers each. I couldn't go to the ball with a bow and arrow strapped on my back, and the guys were not getting purses, so we had to carry theirs too.

All in all, it was a nice day out and a nice day without being attacked to the death or trying to kill each other.

It was nice being normal for once (if by normal you mean being safe in another dimension where the army hunted you down). If you know what I mean...

We only had 5 days left before the ball, so we started heading towards the palace. The next morning. We had all packed all of our stuff, and we actually paid the hostel owners this time.

The trip took us two days, which left us with two days at a really expensive hotel in the city center. There were, unfortunately, not motels or hostels there and Oliver kept complaining about the camping, so we had to stay there.

I mean, have you heard my brother complain about camping? No. You've only seen the tip of the iceberg.

I have to say, though, that the rooms left us speechless. Yeah, rooms. There was no room with four beds, so we stayed in two different ones. I shared a room with Celine, because we had become what you could call "besties". Also, Oliver didn't know what having period cramps means (he only thought it was an excuse for throwing pillows and grunting), so...

Where did the point go? Far away. It's back now.

The rooms were so luxurious, we couldn't get out of them. Cheap hostels with bed bugs and camping in the woods had really taken a toll on us.

And not to mention the clean bathrooms. We had bathtubs, can you believe that? We had two days of actually having long baths instead of quick showers. That hotel was paradise.

After a long night's sleep, I woke up to find Oliver and Felix talking in the room.

«What are you doing here? Where's Celine?» I asked them, sitting up.

«Good morning to you too, sunshine.» Felix retorted.

«She's having a bath. She let us in a few minutes before she went in.» Oliver replied, ignoring Felix.

«Do we have any board games?» I asked.

«You just woke up.» Felix answered.

«I want to show your that I can beat you all even when I'm half-asleep.» I smirked.

«Challenge accepted. I'll get the camera.» he replied.

«I'll get the "CLUEDO".» Oliver muttered.

I don't think we played seriously... Maybe the camera was enchanted to make us go crazy whenever we used it, because I have never seen Oliver so happy and carefree.

We kept recording and playing games all day. I'm not even going to tell you what happened when we played truth or dare. We're not supposed to talk about that, but Oliver was hilarious in Celine's clothes.

You didn't hear that from me.

Either way, before we knew it, the day to got to the ball came and we were ready for it.

Or so we thought...

A/N: We're nearly at the end of the first book, so it's time for me to officially confirm this dump is getting a sequel, which will, hopefully, be better.

No promises.

That's all for now, peeps. See you in the next chapter!

-Choco<3